


a bat by any other name

by PotterheadAvengerDemigod



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), Teen Titans (Animated Series), Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Batfamily Feels, Brotherly Love, Dick Grayson is Robin, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Family Issues, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Jason Todd is Alive, Jason Todd is Red X, batfamily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-18 10:49:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10615341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PotterheadAvengerDemigod/pseuds/PotterheadAvengerDemigod
Summary: "Of course i knew, you idiot. You're my little brother, how could I not?"





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first ever DC fic! I recently got sucked back into the Teen Titans cartoon and fell way too deeply in love with batfamily, so here's my tribute to that.

“I cannot believe he has escaped yet again!” Starfire exclaimed as she watches the alleyway where Red X had disappeared from. “Should we not attempt pursuit, friend Robin?”

“Let him go,” Robin muttered, shaking his head. His brow was furrowed and the opaque eyeholes of his mask narrowed. “That’s teleporter’s untraceable. I should know -I built it, remember? Besides, there’s something I’ve gotta do back at the tower.”

The Boy Wonder swings a leg over the R-Cycle and then he’s off, leaving the other four Titans staring, simultaneously used to Robin’s standoffishness when he fixated on a particular idea, but also stunned by the fact that he was this focused on  _ Red X _ , who he’d never shown much interest in before, save the fact that Red X’s creation was his fault.

“Well. Anyone know what that was about?” Cyborg asked, eyebrow raised.

“Must be something to do with X,” Beast Boy replied, huffing a breath. “Not chill, dude.”

“We must hasten to the Tower to see if friend Robin is alright,” Starfire cut in, and then Raven and Star were taking to the skies, leaving Beast Boy -who didn’t want to shift- and Cyborg to clamber into the T-Car and speed off.

When they get back to the Tower, Robin is seated at the team’s computer, fingers flying over the keyboard and multiple databases pulled up on screen.

“Dude, that’s the Gotham police database,” Cyborg says, eyes wide. “Even I can’t hack that thing.”

“You grow up in Gotham, you learn some tricks,” Robin replies, shrugging, before muttering, so softly that the others can’t hear, “Besides, it’s Wayne tech, and that’s never gonna stop me.”

Then a beeping noise not unlike that of the Titans’ communicators sounds, and Robin freezes up for all of two seconds before he grabs a sleek black rectangle from his belt, flipping it open. A voice sounds from the other end, accented and gentle. “Master Batman would like to know why your ID just accessed the archives, Master Robin.”

“Just doing some research, A, nothing serious,” Robin replies, nonchalant enough that the Titans can tell he’s lying.

“Indeed, Master Robin,” the voice acquiesces, but even the Titans, who know nothing about the mystery man, can tell that the man isn’t buying Robin’s words. “I shall leave you to your  _ research _ , then, and please do try to come down for dinner one of these days?”

“Will try, A, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

“Who was that?” Cyborg asks, but before Robin can even open his mouth, Beast Boy jumps in with a, “I heard him mention Batman! Was that your Bat communicator, Robs? Oh my God do you still keep in contact with Batman? That’s so cool, Batman is, like, the best superhero ever!”

To the Titans’ surprise, instead of being exasperated, like Robin usually is with Beast Boy’s antics, the Boy Wonder just laughs.

“I’ll tell him you said that,” is Robin’s answer to Beast Boy’s deluge of words, causing the changeling’s eyes to bug out.

“Who is this man of bats?” Starfire bursts in then, eyes wide and confused. “And what does he have to do with our friend Robin?”

“You don’t know  _ Batman _ ?” Beast Boy bursts out. “He’s only like, one of the  _ best _ superheroes ever! He pretty much leads the Justice League! And Robin here was his sidekick-”

“Partner,” Robin cuts in, almost growling, expression unamused. “We were  _ partners _ , Beast Boy.”

“Okay, chill, dude,” the shapeshifter says, holding up his hands in surrender. “But anyway, yeah, okay, Robin was Batman’s  _ partner _ and he kicked  _ butt _ ! How can you not know  _ Batman _ , Star?”

Raven rolls her eyes, facepalming. “Because she’s from  _ another planet,  _ maybe?”

“Oh yeahhh,” Beast Boy says, comprehension dawning in his voice. “That makes so much more sense.”

“Yo, who wants pizza?” Cyborg calls from the other side of the room, effectively breaking up the discussion as the Titans all begin yelling out their orders.

Robin grins at the chaos and turns back to the computer, good mood fading as he remembers what he was searching for in the first place. He hopes to God that his suspicions are right, but he knows better than to get his hopes up. He’s been let down way too many times.

* * *

As usual, it’s the middle of the night and Dick has just fallen asleep when the alarm sounds.

“Ugh,” he groans, forcing himself out of bed and putting his domino mask on as he hops on one foot, pulling his boots on before snapping his cape around his neck and fastening his utility belt, a cursory check making sure that his weapons are all in place.

When he makes it out to the living room, Cyborg is already at the computer, a map of the city pulled up. Raven is the next to show up, gliding through the doorway with her cloak half-fastened, closely followed by Starfire, who’s awake and peppy as usual, not a single negative emotion felt towards being woken in the middle of the night.

Beast Boy is the last to show up, stretching and shuffling into the living room, eyes half closed and yawning constantly.

“H.I.V.E. Five at the mall,” Robin reports, barely keeping himself from faceplanting into the desk in exasperation. “Again.”

The Titans let out a simultaneous groan but make their way to the garage all the same, Raven with an unamused scowl on her face and even Starfire looking vaguely annoyed.

“Who attacks the freakin’  _ mall _ in the middle of the  _ night _ ?”

“H.I.V.E. Five, apparently,” Raven deadpans, and then she’s taking to the air and speeding ahead.

* * *

When the Titans make it to the mall, they’re greeted by the sight of Mammoth trashing the courtyard, the fountain smashed to bits and the floor strewn with rubble. Gizmo is off to one corner, a bag of gadgets in his hands, while the rest of the Five are lugging bags of money.

“Titans, go!” Robin yells, and then they’re off.

Without Jinx, the H.I.V.E. Five aren’t that formidable of enemies any longer, although still a threat. But either way, it still takes the combined efforts of both Beast Boy and Cyborg to bring Mammoth down, and Starfire is preoccupied with Gizmo and Raven and Robin with the numerous copies of Billy Numerous. Robin grabs a couple of birdarangs from his belt, throwing them into the mass of clones and groaning in frustration when all of the ones that he hit prove to be clones and not the real person. One of the Billys punches him right in the face when he’s distracted trying to find the real person, and is rewarded by Robin spinning around and kicking him in the gut, forcing the villain back and causing him to fall on his butt on the ground.

That’s when Kyd Wykkyd grabs Robin and teleports him in midair before releasing him and letting him fall, all of the other Titans too busy to come to the Boy Wonder’s rescue.

Robin’s just fumbling for his grappling hook when someone hurtles toward him and grabs him out of the air, landing soundlessly on the other side of the courtyard, where the blur resolves itself into Red X.

“Wha-” Robin starts, eyes -or well, the opaque lenses of his mask- wide.

“Looks like you could use a hand,” Red X chuckles, voice rasping through the modulator in the suit. “I was in the area, and let’s be honest, these guys are starting to annoy me. Always interrupting my heists with their ridiculous efforts to get your attention.”

Robin raises an eyebrow at the fact that Red X is openly admitting that he was in the area committing a crime, but not raising the issue when he simply says, “Thanks for the save.”

Robin darts back out into the battle and pretends he doesn’t notice when he feels Red X following behind.

The Boy Wonder pulls a birdarang from his belt as he runs, aiming at See-More and letting the weapon fly.

See-More turns at the last moment, seeing the weapon flying towards him and immediately erecting a shield, the birdarang bouncing off uselessly.

“Can’t hit m-” See-More starts, mocking, before a red x flies toward him and knocks out his helmet, rendering his powers unusable.

“You were saying?” Red X retorts, scoffing at the boy’s stunned expression before he flings another x and knocks the guy out.

“Nicely done,” Robin says, grinning and clapping Red X on the shoulder, pretending not to notice when the antihero flinches away.

“What would you do without me, huh, Di- Robin?”

That’s when the sound of a gunshot rings through the air. In unison, all the Titans and Red X turn towards where the sound came from, only to realise that Billy Numerous had somehow acquired a gun and had taken advantage of the fact that the Titans were too busy figuring out whether or not the person they were fighting was a clone or the real Billy to fire it.

There’s a bullet speeding through the air, aimed straight at Robin, and everyone stares in horror as it flies on its trajectory, all too far to do anything but watch.

All too far except for one.

A blur of red and black shoves Robin out of the way forcefully, and a moment later there’s the thud of a body hitting the ground.

A wretched sob bursts from Robin’s throat, a harsh, almost unintelligible cry of, “Jay!”

He rushes to Red X’s side -Red X, the guy who cared for no one but himself, the guy who did nothing unless he stood to gain. Red X, who’d just shoved Robin out of the way and taken a bullet meant for him.

The action stuns everyone on the battlefield, even the H.I.V.E. Five, who stand rooted to the spot and staring at the incomprehensible scene happening before them. The Titans are similarly shocked as they too try to process the sight, and it isn’t until Robin yells at them to round up the Five that they snap back into action.

Robin himself collapses beside the fallen antihero, hands pressing down on the wound in an attempt to staunch the flow of blood. Red X lifts a shaking hand and grasps Robin’s forearm, the other hand tugging off his mask to reveal the face of a dark haired boy around Robin’s own age, a red domino mask not unlike Robin’s own stretched across his cheeks.

“You knew?” he rasps, and, God, there’s blood  _ everywhere _ .

“Of course I knew, you idiot,” Robin sobs. “Y-You’re my little brother, how could I not?”

Behind the two boys, the other Titans, who have successfully rounded up the Five, draw in a synchronised gasp, but otherwise say nothing.

“Come on, Jay,” Robin says, pressing down harder and wincing at the hiss of pain that escapes his little brother’s lips before pulling a roll of cloth from his belt and binding the injury. “Come on, don’t you  _ dare _ die on me  _ again _ ! What would Tim and Dami say, huh? What would  _ Dad _ say?”

“Damian wouldn’t care, you know as much,” Jason says, smiling wanly. “And Dad never loved me as much as he did you.”

“Bullshit,” Dick grits out. “Dami is stubborn and aloof but you know as well as I do that he does care. And Dad, God, Jay, he loves you  _ so much _ . You didn’t see how he mourned when he thought you were dead. You didn’t see how we  _ all  _ mourned.”

Jason makes a hurt sound in the back of his throat, small and heartbreaking and so  _ young _ , and God, Dick abruptly remembers that Jay’s only fourteen, too young to have already died and come back and be disillusioned with the world.

“Come on, jerk, don’t you die on me now. N-Not when I’ve just gotten you back.”

Jason smiles wanly and his grip on Dick’s arm tightens ever so slightly. “Not goin’ anywhere, Dickie. Always gonna be here to make your life hard, huh?”

“You better be,” Dick says, and then he’s tying off the bandage, hoping to God that the cloth is enough to get Jason back to the Tower without too much blood loss. He pulls Jason up and slowly helps him over to the R-Cycle, getting on and speeding off, yelling to the Titans to meet him back at the Tower.

When they get back to the Tower, Jason’s already bled through the bandages and he’s woozy from blood loss. The wound itself isn’t particularly big, but it’s a clean shot straight through his chest, and Jay is bleeding from both the entry and exit wounds. Dick himself has been shot before -plenty of times, actually-, but seeing his little brother bleeding out on the medical bed in front of him, bandages practically soaked through and eyelids drooping, mouth going slack, is pretty much the most terrifying thing he’s ever seen.

He thinks he understands now why Bruce tried to take Robin away from him after Joker shot him, because seeing Jay like this, with his own hands covered in Jay’s blood? Dick would do  _ anything _ to keep this from happening again.

Dick sterilises his hands thoroughly and gently unwraps the bandages and and cleans the wound, wiping off the blood and stitching up the entry and exit sites as neatly and cleanly as possible, thanking God that Jason’s already mostly unconscious, because he remembers how painful the feeling of a needle repeatedly going through your skin feels, and how much the burn of antiseptic on an open wound hurts when layered on top of the agony that the injury already sends buzzing under your skin. He wraps another set of clean bandages around the wounds, and finally sits back and breathes, washing his hands and watching as the water flows down the drain in a swirl of pinkish red.

Jay’s gonna be okay. He’s lucky; it was a clean shot, straight through and hitting nothing major, and the only real threat was the possibility of blood loss, which has thankfully been treated.

He’s going to be fine. Dick’s not gonna lose another family member. Dick’s not gonna lose Jason yet again.

* * *

When the other Titans reach the Tower, the first thing they do is look for their leader, who they find in medbay with an undressed scrape on his face and shallow gash down his arm that’s just started scabbing over, curled up in his seat at the bedside of the dark haired boy that is Red X, gaze blank as he stares at the other boy.

He glances up briefly when the other Titans enter, but otherwise says nothing, silent even as Raven glides over and cleans out the wound on his cheek while Cyborg dresses the gash on his arm.

“Are you alright, friend Robin?” Star asks, eyes wide with concern.

Robin nods briefly, eyes never leaving the body of the unconscious boy beside him, before he shakes himself a little, eyes darting upwards to meet the Titans gazes for a moment before he bites his lip and says, “He’s only fourteen, you know. The same age as you, Beast Boy.”

Beast Boy starts at being addressed directly, but that doesn’t stop him from blurting, “Red X is your brother?”

Robin’s lips twist into a wry grin, and he lets out a short laugh before replying. “Yeah. Remember that time last year when I disappeared for a couple of weeks? I went back to Gotham because we thought he’d died. I guess he didn’t, but…”

“I did die,” a hoarse voice cuts in, and Robin immediately turns his gaze to the bed, where Red X is struggling to sit up, only to be pushed down by Robin’s hands on his shoulders.

“I just managed to get your wounds stitched up,” the Boy Wonder says, pursing his lips. “Don’t even think about getting up.”

Red X scowls, but otherwise does as Robin says, and that’s how Dick knows that Jason’s still hurt.

“I actually did die,” he repeats, and Dick flinches at the callous tone that Jason’s voice has taken on. “I came back. I don’t know how.”

Robin’s lips thin, his brow furrowing.

“I-” he starts, then his expression clears. “I’m just glad you’re back.”

The corner of Red X’s lips ticks up slightly, and he huffs a short laugh. “What I want to know is how you knew who I was.”

“You always went out of your way to help me,” Robin says, laughing softly and ruffling Red X’s hair, causing said boy to scowl, unable to raise his hand to bat Robin’s away for fear of pulling his stitches. “Besides, you moved and fought like a Bat.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is based on the premise that Bruce has already adopted/taken in all the four boys already and I'm assuming that the relationship between the four boys isn't as fraught as it is in the comics because a) they're younger and probably less likely to hold grudges and b) they kind of spent their childhood years together.

It’s a week later and Jay’s still recuperating in the Tower that Dick wakes up to yells coming from the common room, and then the Tower’s intercom is blinking on and Raven’s voice comes filtering through. “Robin, you might want to come down to the common room right now.”

Dick tenses and hastily dons his mask and suit, hitting the intercom on the way out and telling the others that he’d be down immediately. He hopes that it’s not anything really serious, because while Raven had sounded harried, she didn’t sound pressured or afraid.

Robin steps into the common room and the first thing he sees is Beast Boy frozen to his spot, mouth hanging open and eyes wider than plates. Beside him, Cyborg is similarly stunned, and then Robin’s gaze turns to the centre of the room.

Standing in the middle of the room, between their monitor screen and couch, is Batman.

Dick can’t help but freeze in his tracks, blinking uncomprehendingly before he startles even himself by rushing forward and barrelling straight into Bruce with a cry of, “Dad!”

Bruce laughs and ruffles Dick’s hair, the corner of his mouth pulling up slightly when Dick pouts and reaches up to smooth his hair back in place.

“What are you doing here?” Dick can’t help but blurt, his mouth running faster than his brain can process.

“What, a man can’t just drop by to see his son once in a while?” Bruce asks, ignoring the rest of the Titans, who seemed to have been frozen in place. “Agent A misses you.”

_ I miss you _ goes unspoken, but not unheard.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Beast Boy interrupts, finally seeming to have regained his ability to move. “ _ Batman’s  _ your  _ Dad _ ?”

“He-”

“Hey, Di- Robs, what’s all the fuss abou-” Jason starts, walking into the common room before freezing as his eyes land on Bruce.

Bruce is frozen in place now, and isn’t that a once in a lifetime sight: Batman, shocked speechless.

“J-” he starts, throat working as his lips move soundlessly. “You- I- You’re alive. You’re  _ alive _ !”

Bruce starts towards his second son, and only stops when he sees the way that Jason noticeably backs away, scowl firmly in place.

“Of course I am,” the boy scoffs, huffing a mirthless laugh. “No thanks to you,  _ Batman _ .”

“I-” Bruce starts, and then he’s drawing away even as Jason glares, the patented Bat glare that scares even the Joker.

“Um, maybe we should take this somewhere else?” Dick asks, eyeing the rest of the Titans, who are watching the back and forth with wide, unblinking eyes. “Unless you don’t mind accidentally leaking our names to my team.”

Both Jason’s and Bruce’s gazes flick over to the four other Titans, and then they’re stalking down the hall, Dick trailing after with a resigned set to his shoulders.

* * *

They’re in Dick’s room when the tension running between them finally reaches a peak. Bruce’s cowl is down, revealing the shadowed face of the billionaire underneath, and Dick’s and Jason’s masks lie side by side on the bed.

“Why the  _ hell _ did I not know you were alive?” Bruce asks, his voice low and steely and the kind of angry that says that if Jason were any of Gotham’s criminals, he’d be unconscious and bleeding all over the floor, probably with multiple broken bones.

“Even the great Bruce Wayne can’t know everything,” is Jason’s callous reply, his eyes glinting with a flinty malice that makes Dick shudder, abruptly reminded of the times he went toe-to-toe with Slade, that same look in the villain’s one visible eye.

“But I should have known this,” Bruce says, and the anger is still there, if buried under layers of emotionless masks.

“Why should you have? You never cared, you left me to die in that warehouse, you pushed everyone who ever cared about you away! You pushed Dick away, then you pushed me away, then you _let me_ _die!_ You never cared, _Bruce_ , don’t pretend you did. And when I got back, when I came back to Gotham to see you, then I learn that you never felt anything,” Jason’s voice steadily increases in volume until he’s practically screaming his words in Bruce’s face, and when the man doesn’t flinch he continues. “You never avenged me, you just replaced me. You went on with your double life like nothing had changed, like you never had a second son!”

“I raised you!” Bruce finally snaps, yelling back. “I trained you, I took you in, I  _ mourned  _ you!”

Then the façade breaks. Bruce folds in on himself, sitting heavily down on Dick’s bed and burying his face in his hands.

“I-I loved you,” he whispers, voice breaking. “And I missed you every day that you were gone.”

Jason’s shoulders drop from where they were hunched up around his ears, and Dick can see the conflict in his blue eyes as he takes in Bruce’s defeated form, anger warring with guilt.

“Don’t patronise me,” Jason mutters, but the anger in his voice is slowly giving way to plain hurt and confusion. “I’m not a kid anymore.

“I don’t need you,” he says, but it’s starting to sound less like a fact and more like he’s trying to convince himself. “I don’t need anyone.”

“Not even your big brother?” Dick cuts in, trying desperately to resolve the tension in the room, but what he doesn’t count on is Jason turning to face him, eyes red-rimmed and lips thinned.

His little brother stares at him, blinking furiously, and then Jason is crossing the room, drawing back a fist, and socking him right across the face. Dick takes the blow with as much grace as he can, having had just enough time to brace himself. Then Jason collapses, crumpling in on himself, and Dick lunges forward to catch him before he hits the ground.

Jay’s chewing at his lip, eyes squeezed shut and brow furrowed, the kind of upset emotion that Dick hasn’t seen Jason show since he was so much younger, when Jason would run to him when he needed comfort, when he had nightmares and would sneak into Dick’s room, worming his way under the covers and huddling into Dick’s side, giggling when Dick complained.

Sometimes when Dick closes his eyes, he sees those days in Gotham, before he’d fallen out with Bruce and stormed out, before Jason died, when he and Jay and Tim and even Dami were still closer than ever, despite Dami acting like he hated everyone. He smiles when he remembers how much he’d loved being the older brother, the way the other three had come to him whenever they needed help, and he’d do anything in his power to help them.

That was something he’d never experience again. His brothers were too independent, too proud, to ask for help like that.

But cradling Jason in his arms as the younger boy’s brow furrowed and his eyes glimmered, lips downturned, Dick can’t help but remember those days. He wishes that he could cheer Jay up like he used to when they were younger, but that’s practically impossible at this point. There’s a darkness in Jay that Dick recognises, a darkness that Dick had seen in Slade, had seen in himself at the times when Slade got into his mind. It’s a darkness that Dick’s afraid of, afraid of what it means for Jay.

His grip around Jay tightens, practically crushing the younger boy to his body, and Dick sees the silent tear that tracks down Jason’s cheek before the boy presses his face into Dick’s shirt, hiding his expression.

From the corner of his eye, Dick sees Bruce stand, and abruptly Bruce’s arms are circling them both, a quick, tight hug before he presses a quick kiss to their foreheads and leaves the room, pulling his cowl up as he goes.

Jay pulls out of the embrace a while after Bruce leaves, and Dick pretends he doesn’t feel the wet patch on his shirt and doesn’t see the red-rimmed eyes. He stands and swipes roughly at his eyes before picking up his mask and pressing it in place, the façade of the untouchable Red X once more in place. Dick stands and follows suit, and the silence between them is practically tangible, but far less tense than it had been.

They exchange glances, and then they walk out of the room together.

They are Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, Robin and Red X, and they are brothers. They are brothers, and they love each other, and despite everything they’ve been through, they love their dad, and he loves them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this kind of ended up having a weird ending because I initially wanted to fit in some sort of id reveal or something to kind of tie off loose ends, but the place where it stops seems a bit too final to add on anything extra

**Author's Note:**

> Shoutout to my friend (you know who you are) who has a better grasp of the batfamily personalities than I do and basically dealt with weird texts at weird times of the day going "would (insert name) do this" or "give me everything you've got on (insert name)'s personality" and basically just being my sounding board! <3  
> This one's for you!
> 
> [My Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/_dreamdweller/)  
> Pop over and say hi!


End file.
